The Heritage Of Persia by Richard N. Frye

The Heritage Of Persia by Richard N. Frye

Aga Khan Professor of Iranian, Harvard University

A fascinating study of ancient Persia-of the pre-Islamic history of one of the world’s great civilizations

1966

THE PERSIANS

In spite of repeated invasion and foreign rule, the Persians have maintained their traditions and language in a remarkable continuity. THE HERITAGE OF PERSIA traces that continuity through, more than a thousand years- from the time the Iranians first came upon the plateau to the Islamicisation of the land in the tenth century A.D.

Professor Frye illuminates a little-known but vastly important era of history as he describes the early culture of these inventive, sophisticated, and powerful people. Here are the fabulous figures of antiquity: Cyrus and Zoroaster, the Achaemenids and the Parthians; the legends and the facts of the Iranian past-one of the greatest civilizations in human history.

“There is no doubt that in the Harvard Professor of Iranian a very great, thoroughly mature, and pleasantly articulate authority was found to marshal and assess all the facts known and all the suppositions tentatively held about ancient Iran.”

– London Times Literary Supplement

“A wonderful tapestry of legend, religion, history and literature is presented before our eyes. The discussions on Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes and Zoroaster and their contributions to this heritage make fascinating reading.”

-The Asian Student